Romantic crime drama “Till the End of the Night,” which plays in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, has debuted its first clip (below) with Variety, and its poster, designed by the U.S. graphic designer Midnight Marauder.
The film, directed by Christoph Hochhäusler (“The City Below”), is a complex love story intertwined with crime and deception, starring Timocin Ziegler as gay cop Robert, and introducing newcomer Thea Ehre as trans woman Leni. The script is by Florian Plumeyer, and the producer is Bettina Brokemper at Heimatfilm. The Match Factory is handling international sales.
In order to gain the trust of a drugs dealer, undercover cop Robert has to pretend to be Leni’s lover. The police hope her ties with the felon will help him to infiltrate the organization. But while this part of the plan works relatively smoothly, their fake relationship is rocky from the start. Robert was once in love with Leni, when she was a he. Ironically it is Victor, the drugs dealer, who will make Robert confront his conflicting feelings.
Hochhäusler commented: “What drew me to ‘Till the End of the Night’ is the mote in the protagonist’s eye: Robert is blind to himself and to others, trapped in contradictions. His relationships have failed; there’s no way back. He’s a man on the run from his feelings but – even in his false life as an undercover agent – they soon catch up with him.
“Even at the start of the film he’s a man who is at war with himself and this is reflected in his physical self. When he and transgender woman Leni are instructed to act as a couple in order to initiate contact with someone in the criminal underworld he is confronted with a mistake from his past and has to come to terms with his own long-hidden desires.”
He added: “I wanted to make a film that’s fierce, painful, raw – a melodrama with German pop music, long focal shots and very narrow depth of field. A film in which the crisis of masculinity is presented as an opera.
“The right life in the wrong context and vice versa: Florian Plumeyer’s screenplay is a dark hall of mirrors in which the hero is always bumping his head on something. This striking individual only finds relief through a breathless crime story that doesn’t hold back from escalation.”